OK, this all started after driving home in a rainstorm. I hydroplaned the van, and it began to misfire. Took it to Autozone, used the ODBII scanner and it says it's misfiring on 4 and running lean on 1 and 2.

This has me all sorts of confused. If it was misfiring on all of them, I could understand. But how did this cause two cylinders to run lean? I'm at a loss here with this one. Can anyone else give some suggestions? I'm waiting for it to cool down again so I can pull the wires and try drying them off, or try taking off the coil cap and drying it.

It's also worthy of note that the EGR valve has been clogged for quite some time, but the lean issues have never come up before.

 

Well, I changed all the plugs with autolite Platnums (just like the ones that have been in there forever), gapped them all to .054, and checked all the wires to see if there was water in any connection and put some di-electric grease around the boots, and still runs the same.

Anyone?

 

hi, for my money i would change the spark plug wires as these engines seem super critical to there wire conditions. do a search in this forum and you will find the recomended make. good luck bokker.

 

Ditto the above.
If you have never changed the wires, then I would do so before going any further.
Motorcraft OEM wires have seemed to provide the best, most reliable service of any plug wire for the 4.2.

Keep us posted!

 

Well, it's been a few days...

I changed the plugs and wires... and no difference. At all. Though I could tell the plugs were bad, and #4 was most definitely fouled out.

I checked, and #4 is not getting spark. I checked #5, #6, and #3, and they all get spark. I didn't bother with #1 and #2, but I imagine they're fine.

I ordered a new motorcraft coil, going to pick it up right now. If that's not the issue.... then I'm at a total loss, honestly.

 

Alright, well, I bought the coil and got it installed today. I knew I was on to something as I pulled off the old one and saw the mounting ear was cracked off the side I couldn't actually see. Got it all the way off, and right near the #4 plug, there were several hairline cracks. THrew the new one on, put it together, no more misfire! Yay!

I don't know about the lean however, I need to go back to someone with a scanner to find out again.

Thanks for all the help everyone! I really do appreciate it!

 

hi, good news about the fix. can i ask how much the coil cost as i great britain prices for spares are top $. thanks bokker.

 

bokker,
About $90 from Advance Auto